There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.

PayPal has spent most of 2016 policing and limiting businesses, and traffic exchange owners are losing their minds.

There seems to be mass confusion going on as to what and why people are being limited, the reasons people are receiving are all varying, and this has caused all kinds of speculation, from things as silly as words used or upgrades offered and whatever else.

Traffic Exchange owners are doing some crazy things, many of them even going so far as blaming their customers. They always talk about the “good old days.” A time where magical unicorns walked the earth and pooped cupcakes and jellybeans. A time that never really existed, then they try to shift blame as to what changed.

Some are wanting to completely flip their businesses on their heads and try to turn them into something completely different or unrelated to Traffic Exchanges. It’s insanity the things I’m seeing in the skype groups.

Traffic Exchange users are becoming equally panicked, and for good reason, the “leaders” in this industry are saying some ridiculous things, in front of their customers too.

The truth is that many Traffic Exchanges will not survive, some will try to change their business model to comply with PayPal, only to find out that PayPal’s actions have little to do with traffic exchanges, as they are also limiting accounts of people selling information products, email marketing, coaching services, many digitally delivered products.

Others will try to convert to other payment processors and will not have the capital to sustain the financial impact of that transition.

Certain people are saying they should now take a more active role in the types of ads they accept. I’ve been doing this since day one, and in those times I would ask people why they would allow obviously illegal scams to be advertised on their sites, and why they would allow their customers to fall victim to these scams, only to be told repeatedly that they can’t police the internet or that it’s not their job. Now these same people standing on soap boxes telling everyone that they shouldn’t allow them. I never did, they never should have, but either way that’s not going to increase favorability with PayPal.

Some will try to remain a traffic exchange in their current form, but try and push away their own audience. I keep seeing things about “penny chasers” and “freebie seekers” and other vilification of their customers and question if they understand their target market at all, or how advertising actually works (If there’s nobody to see an ad, does it make a sound?).

It’s insane to me that businesses that have spent years targeting specific audiences would then say that those people aren’t good enough to be their customers.

There’s a lot of romanticizing over what a Traffic Exchange is, or what it should be, or what it could be. And very little discussion over what it actually is.

The most important thing for the survival of a business is to understand exactly what it is, and what it is being used for.. not what you want it to be, not what you want people to use it for, but what the reality of the business is. Knowing Exactly who your customers are, and why your business has succeeded (or hasn’t).

There’s a lot of reactionary nonsense going on, and it’s going to wreck havoc on the Traffic Exchange market.

But then there are others. There are people who understand who their businesses serve, understand who their customers are and what it is they are seeking.

Traffic Exchanges have always been incentive based, they’ve always been for small home businesses and beginning entrepreneurs to be able to advertise and build their lists without capital. Regardless of if you are surfing for some credits to advertise, or a few cents to go towards your hosting bill, it’s the way traffic exchanges have always worked since day one.. Those who understand the nature of their business will continue to succeed, and those who don’t will try to change everything. It won’t be PayPal or any other payment processor that kills their business, it will be them.